


Let Your Heart Be Light

by alwaysupatnight



Series: Touch [2]
Category: From Dusk Till Dawn: The Series
Genre: Angst, Christmas, F/M, Fluff, Kissing, Post-Amaru (From Dusk Till Dawn), Seth continues to be a supportive boyfriend, Touching, face touching
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-25
Updated: 2020-12-25
Packaged: 2021-03-10 21:55:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,996
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28314168
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/alwaysupatnight/pseuds/alwaysupatnight
Summary: It’s been more than a year since Mexico, and those days will live with her forever, the good and the bad. But the best of them, the best ofhimstands right here in her kitchen with love in his eyes.So, no.A gift from him could never bejustanything.Kate smiles wetly at him and winds her arms around his waist, pressing her face into his chest.“It’s the best gift ever.”
Relationships: Kate Fuller/Seth Gecko
Series: Touch [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2073669
Comments: 19
Kudos: 44





	Let Your Heart Be Light

**Author's Note:**

> Merry Christmas! Here's a oneshot I slapped together last night. XD This is supposed to be a sequel to the Touch Starved ficlet. Thinking of making it a series. lol Anyway, I hope y'all have a wonderful holiday! Stay safe out there! :D

Kate’s putting the finishing touches on her tree and half-listening to Christmas movies playing in the background when there’s a knock at the door.

At 11 pm on Christmas Eve, there’s only one person it could be.

Not even bothering to look through the peephole, she opens the door to find Seth standing on her welcome mat. He’s got a box decorated with blue sparkly snowflake paper and tied with a large red ribbon slung under one arm and a six-pack of beer gripped in his other hand.

“What are you doin’ here?” she sighs with a shake of her head. “Shouldn’t you be with your brother?”

“Shouldn’t you be with yours?” he says, and Kate swallows down the lump that’s been stuck in her throat all day.

She should be a lot of things today. She should be on holiday break from her first semester in college, visiting home for the first time since going away for school. She should be listening to her favorite Christmas album and drinking eggnog with her dad. She should be cuddling with mama on the couch and watching _Meet Me in St. Louis_ and listening to Judy Garland sing “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas”. She should be fighting with Scott about when they can open presents. _Not till Christmas morning!_ she’d always yell at him. But he’d ignore her and try to peek at his presents early anyway.

But it’s not gonna be that kind of Christmas this year.

Or any year ever again.

It’s not the first Christmas she’s had without her folks. But _last_ Christmas isn’t one she wants to think about.

“Hey, can I come in?” Seth asks, snapping Kate out of her dark memories. “It’s cold as fuck out here.”

Kate shakes off the nightmare of those dark days with Amaru and nods, moving aside to allow Seth to enter. He deposits the gift and beer into her hands as he brushes past her into the living room.

“Where’d he run off to, anyway?” Seth asks, shrugging out of his jacket. “Your brother?”

Kate takes his windbreaker and hangs it on a hook by the front door. “I didn’t tell you? He’s touring with Fanglorious on the West Coast.”

Not that she could blame Scott for wanting to leave. After everything that happened in Texas over the last year and a half, she almost regrets not going with him herself. But she’d chosen this. Chosen to spend her first Christmas at her new apartment in solitude, no matter how much it hurt. She wouldn’t stop Scott from moving on with his life, and she had to find a way to do the same now.

Seth frowns, but doesn’t say anything. But he doesn’t need to for her to see the disapproval lacing his features. But instead of starting another argument over her brother, he snatches the six-pack from her and heads to the kitchen to put away his beer, and then stands there eyeing the contents of her fridge.

Kate sets the gift down on the counter. “Do you mind?” she laughs, incredulously.

With him barging in unexpectedly, her apartment feels as though it’s shrunken in size. But when Seth Gecko enters a room, it never goes unnoticed.

“Don’t you have a fridge at home where you can store your beer?” she asks.

“What can I say, Princess?” he says. “Wouldn’t want you getting too comfortable without me.”

Kate rolls her eyes. “As if I could get rid of you,” she scoffs.

The fact of the matter is, she _couldn’t_. He comes over so often she’s barely had the chance to miss him ever since she moved out of the Geckos’ compound a little over a month ago. He’d even insisted on reinforcing her front door when he saw the flimsy lock the carpenters had installed. “Anyone could come busting in here,” he’d warned.

_Yes, anyone_ , she thinks with her eyes narrowed at the man standing in her kitchen before finally turning her attention to the gift on the counter.

“So, what is this?” she asks, fingering the ribbon.

He closes the fridge and stands up to his full height, looking way too at ease. Like he owns the place. Seth turns to look at her with his arms crossed and leans his butt against the counter, shooting her that dumb smile.

“Christmas slash housewarming gift. From me,” he says. “Open it.”

Kate shoots him a wary smile. First the gloves he’d given her when she was still raw after Amaru’s possession. Then the apartment Richie let her take for no charge at all when she felt like she needed a change. Now this?

She knew Seth had been uneasy about her leaving the compound to live on her own. He never failed to let her know just _how_ he felt about it. All those times he tried to talk her out of it. There was no disguising the worry in his eyes when Richie handed over the keys to her new apartment. But Seth had still helped her move her meager possessions from the compound. Had helped her put together all her new furniture. He’d cursed at the Ikea manual and flung the screws everywhere maybe, but he’d gotten the job done in the end.

“Shouldn’t we wait till tomorrow?” She already has a bunch of presents from the guys at the compound under her tree that she was saving for the morning. And she’s wearing the fluffy white sweater Kalinda got for her.

Seth squints at his wristwatch to check the time. “S’almost midnight anyway. Go for it.”

Kate brightens and tears the wrapping paper, catching her breath when she discovers what’s inside.

It’s a toaster. A mint green toaster.

_He remembered_.

“I just figured, y’know? I owed you one,” he says with a shrug. “And you can use it. In your new place.” Seth glances around thoughtfully at her small apartment and nods with reluctant approval. “It’s a nice place, Kate. You really made it your own.”

It’s the size of a shoebox in comparison with the set-up she’d had at the compound, but it’s comfortable.

It’s _hers_.

“Thank you,” she says, giving Seth a wobbly smile. “I love it.” She wipes her blurry eyes with the sleeve of her sweater before happily tearing open the box to retrieve her present.

“It’s just a toaster,” he says, probably wondering how she could be so excited over a kitchen appliance.

“No, it’s not,” she says, shaking her head.

It’s been more than a year since Mexico, and those days will live with her forever, the good and the bad. But the best of them, the best of _him_ stands right here in her kitchen with love in his eyes.

So, no.

A gift from him could never be _just_ anything.

Kate smiles wetly at him and winds her arms around his waist, pressing her face into his chest.

“It’s the best gift ever.”

She sets up her toaster in the corner and steps back to admire the way it matches the rest of her aesthetic perfectly. Then they move into the living room to settle on the couch and watch a movie. Seth spreads his arms across the top of the cushions, propping his socked feet up on the coffee table. His arm comes around her shoulder, and she snuggles closer to his warmth as he takes a swig of his beer.

“So, what are we watchin’?” he asks, grabbing the remote and turning up the volume on the TV.

It doesn’t matter, because Kate doesn’t care about the film anyway. Not when he’s here. With his body pressed so close to hers, he’s a welcome distraction from everything happening on-screen.

And that’s not all.

Because with him here, she feels like she’d made the right choice in staying behind. Begins to feel the peace she’s sought for so long after all those months spent forced to do Amaru’s bidding.

Tucked against him, warm and safe, she’s asleep in no time at all.

She wakes to the soft glow of sunlight creeping in through the windows on Christmas morning. Seth is asleep beside her with his face pressed into her neck, his soft snores streaking humid breath across her collarbone thanks to the wide neck of her slouchy, off-the-shoulder sweater.

He’s let his hair grow out, and it tickles under her chin. Kate had been amused to discover the unruly curls and the gray streaks at his temples. She fingers a lock of hair at the nape of his neck, jealous of how silky it is.

Seth shivers at her touch and blinks slowly awake. “Don’t stop,” he mutters sleepily when she withdraws her hand from the back of his head. He closes his eyes and leans into her touch. “S’nice.”

Kate smiles and returns to running her fingers through his hair.

He’d always been so careful to respect her boundaries, even after she stopped wearing the gloves around him. But he never complains if she initiates that contact first. In fact, he seems to crave it, and it thrills her to know that her touch affects him just as much as he affects her.

She’d chosen this. This apartment and all the furniture in it. This home that has never felt quite like home. This life and the loneliness that comes as a packaged deal when she falls asleep alone in her apartment each night. Which has only become more apparent now because it’s the holidays and her family is dead and gone. And maybe that’s the price she has to pay for wanting the freedom to find herself again.

But she loves living in her own place, loves calling all the shots, loves having not to share with anyone when her tolerance for invasions of her personal space is still at an all time low.

But this? She’s missed this.

This closeness with Seth. His warmth. His scent. His overwhelming presence that makes her breath catch in her throat and her heart seize in her ribs every time he’s near. Her chest tightens knowing he wouldn’t let her spend the holidays alone. That it had never been an option for him. That he saved her that day the world nearly ended, and keeps saving her every day after.

He’s the best gift she could ever ask for.

Kate turns to face him, and he opens his eyes, meeting hers in the twinkling lights of the Christmas tree.

“Merry Christmas, baby,” he murmurs.

Kate smiles, cupping his face. “Merry Christmas,” she says, stroking her thumb over the stubble on his cheek. She lets her thumb play over his bottom lip and can’t tear her eyes away from his mouth.

He seems to read her mind, because he moves first, slotting his mouth over hers. And it’s not the first time they’ve kissed, but when he groans into her mouth like that and the sound of it stirs her in places she’s never felt before, she knows exactly what she wants.

She’d go to the ends of the earth to have it. Because when he kisses her like that, she knows it’s love.

Because with Seth’s body pressing her gently into the sofa, his arms holding her close and his lips moving happily over hers, she’s discovered.

Home is right here.

Kate pulls away for air, and Seth continues to drop kisses down her neck. She giggles, feeling dizzy and lightheaded. But she catches his face in her hands, letting out a shaky breath to calm herself down.

Because there’s still time for all of that. They’ve got all the time in the world.

She sits up on the couch, tangling her fingers with his. Seth’s large thumb strokes over the top of her hand. And after some time, when her heart has finally stopped fluttering madly inside her chest, she asks, “You want some toast?”

Seth barks out a laugh and nods. “Yeah.”

Kate smiles.

It’s gonna be a good day.


End file.
